General Contractor....

[schurchill39]

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Thanks. The issue right now is not so much trying to save money, it's trying to actually get insurance in the first place. My broker went to multiple companies and non of them accepted, which lead me to find an online company which gave me two quotes, $9700 for one and $4900 from the other (through a different broker). This was a few months back. I went to renew the quote and now they are asking me more questions and giving me the feeling that it will either be much more expensive than $9700.....or won't insure me at all. We will see what they come back with today. I am submitting for quotes from multiple insurance companies, that's my sole task for the day, so hopefully I find something. The reason I asked about General Contractor stuff is just because the insurance company was really pushing for it it seems, so wanted to get familiar with how that works.


I think these set of questions is basically what is the main determinant on getting a policy and how much it would be. The screenshot is how I answered these:

Attachment 106118

Are you doing 100% of your own electrical and pumbling? I thought you said you would do the grunt work and bring someone in to tie up the loose ends? If not and you are planning on doing all of that then it would really be less than 80% of the build you are hiring out. As far as the question about 2 years of that type of work you've answered yes but what you've described your experience as (basements garages etc) the answer would be no as they are looking for essentially 2 years of semi continuous work (ie 440 days doing that type of work full time). If you answer yes on that and get insured then there is an incident you'd likely be denied for lying because in their eyes your experience wouldn't count towards 2 years of full time work.

These also seem like standard questions for insurance and nothing to get worked up over. They are doing their due diligence and you want to be honest. It might result in higher rates or not being insured but don't misconstrue that as not being insurable. Ask your broker if it makes a difference if the insurance is for a private citizen or a corporation and if his answer is yes then go spend the $600-1000 to get a numbered company.

Try Ryder Insurance as one of your brokers. Not sure if they do the type you're looking for but when I was looking for corporate insurance they were the most thorough and offered the best price.

[eblend]

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Are you doing 100% of your own electrical and pumbling? I thought you said you would do the grunt work and bring someone in to tie up the loose ends? If not and you are planning on doing all of that then it would really be less than 80% of the build you are hiring out. As far as the question about 2 years of that type of work you've answered yes but what you've described your experience as (basements garages etc) the answer would be no as they are looking for essentially 2 years of semi continuous work (ie 440 days doing that type of work full time). If you answer yes on that and get insured then there is an incident you'd likely be denied for lying because in their eyes your experience wouldn't count towards 2 years of full time work.

These also seem like standard questions for insurance and nothing to get worked up over. They are doing their due diligence and you want to be honest. It might result in higher rates or not being insured but don't misconstrue that as not being insurable. Ask your broker if it makes a difference if the insurance is for a private citizen or a corporation and if his answer is yes then go spend the $600-1000 to get a numbered company.

Try Ryder Insurance as one of your brokers. Not sure if they do the type you're looking for but when I was looking for corporate insurance they were the most thorough and offered the best price.

Maybe I misunderstood that initial question, as the follow up questions basically ask the same thing but with more emphasis on construction industry and experience in that. In my eyes I have over 20 years of experience in doing that type of work, as I do everything myself always, but I do understand that it counts for nothing essentially as far as insurance company is concerned. It's a bummer really, since it all gets inspected anyways, so it should count for something.

I had a numbered company for my IT business a few years back, so I am aware of the process. I am holding this suggestion in my back pocket for worst case scenario. Getting the company registered isn't so bad....it's everything else that goes around it like GST accounts, T2s ect ect that I would much rather not get involved with.

Seems like Ryder does construction insurance, so I will reach out to them as well.

[pheoxs]

In my view:

You pull electrical cable and rough in and then an electrician comes to do the hookup and panel -> that means its completed by a subcontractor. They do the final termination which means completed by them.

[eblend]

So reached out to a bunch of companies today, and got some better news. Posting it here mainly for future reference for anyone who might be in the same boat.

So the insurance company that originally quoted me at $9700 a few months back (Apollo Insurance), and who I reached out to for a re-quote yesterday, upon further investigation into this and the approval from higher ups (getting this in writing), was able to use my general construction experience to switch the answers from No to Yes for these two questions:

1. Does the Owner have a minimum of two (2) years of experience in both the construction industry and in hiring and managing subcontractors?
2. Has the Owner been actively engaged in the construction industry for the last two (2) years or more?

They said that my experience in building multiple garages/basements and doing all related plumbing/electrical/siding/roofing/drywall ect was sufficient for them to be satisfied with switching the original No to a Yes on their end, and got me a quote!

Just got it in writing

"As per our conversation, I spoke with our underwriting team and they helped me clarify the requirements for you to be eligible to purchase the builder's risk quote. Previously you had answered no to the following:

Does the Owner have a minimum of two (2) years of experience in both the construction industry and in hiring and managing subcontractors?
Has the Owner been actively engaged in the construction industry for the last two (2) years or more?

Since you had clarified your construction experience for the past two years (non-professional), we found you eligible to purchase this policy. Looking forward to working with you on this!"

Final price came in even cheaper than before, at $8,734.09 for 16 months of construction with $600000 coverage and $2M liability. This is good!

I have also reached out to another broker, who an acquaintance of mine used to get his insurance policy when he was building his home, and after spending a good hour on the phone and getting as much details out of me as possible, including house plans and details on contractors, is working on quoting me as well from his trove of companies he works with. He said the fact that the main shell of the building is built by a builder should play very favorably in my situation and he will get me all the options within the next 3-4 days. With that being said, I can throw the initial general contractor question out of the window and I can proceed exactly as I have originally wanted.

I will update this thread once I get more quotes, again for future reference. This information is hard to come by, so hopefully someday it may help someone.

[suntan]

PM me when you want me to burn the place down for the insurance money.

[zechs]

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PM me when you want me to burn the place down for the insurance money.

Everybody wins!

Also great to hear eblend, glad you got it figured out. Insurance always gets anxious when a person wants to do something outside the box.